Consumers and businesses are increasingly using electronic commerce systems to obtain goods and services. Electronic commerce systems are particularly useful for obtaining goods that are not typically available in a local marketplace. For example, electronic commerce systems are increasingly being used as the preferred shopping venue to obtain products used in highly technical applications, such as electrical and electronic components.
Electronic commerce systems are useful in sales of highly technical components because consumers of these components tend to be geographically diverse. Further, consumers of the components tend to have nonuniform demand for any particular component. The combination of these two aspects of technical component sales requires that retailers of these components provide a large selection of diverse components to an extensive customer base to compensate for the nonuniform demand. These demands are typically satisfied using electronic commerce systems.
In order to meet the needs of this diverse customer base, electronic commerce systems typically provide multiple levels of information that can be accessed by a consumer for each product offered for sale. For example, an electronic commerce system may provide a generic component search engine allowing a consumer to search for a particular electronic component by, for example, manufacturer name, price point, part number, component name, etc. The generic component search engine is configured to identify one or more components, typically a listing of multiple components, satisfying the search criteria entered by the consumer.
However, for sales of highly technical components, the information typically displayed by a generic component search engine, or even a component specific display page, is insufficient for the specialized consumers of these types of components. Accordingly, electronic commerce systems typically provide a link in the search result listings and/or the component specific display page that initiates the display of a product datasheet describing the component in further detail.
A datasheet or spec sheet is a document providing detail information regarding the performance and other technical characteristics of a product, machine, component, material, subsystem, or software, hereinafter described as a component for simplicity, in sufficient detail to be used by a consumer to determine the suitability of the item for satisfying the consumer's needs. Datasheets are an important part of how engineers evaluate and buy products. Typically, a datasheet is created by the component manufacturer and thereafter provided by the manufacturer, representatives, distributers, etc.
A datasheet typically begins with an introductory page describing a remainder of the document. The remainder of the document typically includes listings of specific characteristics, information on the connectivity of the device, source code, engineering tolerances, inputs and outputs, timing diagrams, physical specifications, etc. As can be appreciated, the datasheet is generally an extensive, detailed document and is thus unsuitable for display in the listing of results from the search engine or even on a component specific product ordering page.
Although providing data sheets for highly technical components has been recognized as necessary for implementing an electronic-commerce site, integration of the data sheets with electronic commerce systems has been limited. Data sheets are typically provided as static documents, such as PDF documents, accessible by a link from the search result listing and/or component specific display page. Accordingly, a consumer viewing, for example on a distributers web site, a component specific display page and needing additional information is required to click on the link to navigate to a separate page and/or open a separate window, for example at a manufacturer's web site, displaying the datasheet, review the information and then navigate back to the component specific display page if the component proves satisfactory after reviewing the datasheet.
Thus, what is needed is a system and method for providing commercial functionality such as inventory reporting or purchasing functionality in a datasheet display for a particular component accessed through a component specific purchasing page. What is further desirable is such a system and method further configured to display inventory information for a plurality of independent inventory systems.